Hidden Gun Storage: Ideas And DIY Projects

Guns you use for self defense are not something you hang on your wall as trophies or leave around the house like they are regular objects. If you have a family and you don’t live alone then you definitely know how dangerous is to leave a weapon unsupervised around the house. There were lots of cases in the media of children playing with loaded guns and only a few of those ended well.

When you have a gun in the house you need to make sure you find it right where you left it and no one else can stumble upon it by mistake. This is why making a hidden gun storage place is an amazing idea. None of your family members (those who don’t have to know) will be able to tell where your gun is hidden and this way you’ll avoid problems.

If you work your creativity a little bit, you’ll be able to make the perfect place to hide your gun and no one will be able to tell what it is. This way, in case there is an attack and perpetrators manage to enter your house, you’ll have the possibility to get the gun out of where it’s hidden without raising any suspicions.

Traditionally, people put their guns in a safe, because they consider it’s safer this way. It is indeed safer, but it is also a bit more expensive. However, if you are interested in such a compartment, we have a great set of reviews for gun safes that you should read about.

Still you have to consider that if you lock your gun away, it loses its purpose. Until you manage to get to the safe and unlock it, many bad things can happen. Also, thieves focus on identifying the safe’s location in your house and they’ll make you open it while you’re under their careful supervision thus rendering the gun null.

Because we want you to be safe and able to protect your family and friends, we’re going to discuss a few ideas and projects that will help you keep your arms inconspicuous. You can go two ways when you try to keep your guns away from prying eyes:

DIY projects – here you’re going to need a bit of handyman skills like using a hammer and a saw in order to create the basic structures. Still all projects are creative, fun to make and they will definitely help you develop new skills;

Ready made products you can buy in a tactical store or online.

Making your own hidden gun storage place

In the following we’re going to discuss some of the most popular ideas among firearms owners but you shouldn’t stop here. You can get creative and invent some of your own hiding places. Just remember what a wise man once told: the best hiding place is in plain sight!

Places to hide the gun when you live alone

When you live alone, you don’t have the problem of kids playing around and finding your gun. You just have to be creative enough as to find a place where no thief would think there’s a gun hidden.

Here are a few hidden places “bad boys” use:

In the pantry, in a cereal box – usually thieves are not looking for cereals, they want money and jewelry. The problem though is how are you going to get in the pantry to get the gun, when the attackers already threaten you;

Behind fake electrical outlets – this is a clever place to hide a gun. Usually, when thieves want to intimidate you, they make you lay on the floor, near the wall. If you’re lucky enough to be near the wall where your gun is, they won’t even realize when you got the gun pointed at them;

Inside the front door (if the door is thick enough) – this way, when you open the door, your hand is just inches away from your gun and the person in front of the door has no idea. If those standing in front of your door look suspicious or try to attack you, you can protect yourself by simply reaching for the gun;

You can hang a small firearm upside down in your bathroom cabinet. No burglar would ever think to look there and you may be able to convince them to let you go to the bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom, you can stick one weapon under the towels;

You can choose to sleep with your go-to weapon under the pillow (we’ve all seen the movies) or under your bed; this is the closest you can keep your weapons in case of an attack;

As you can see, when you live alone almost every little corner can be used as a hiding place. Just make sure to remember where you put it so you don’t stumble upon it by mistake.

Places to hide your weapons when you have children

Well, now it’s the time to get creative! When there are children around there’s no way you can keep your firearm under the bed or stacked under towels in the bathroom.

You need a clever hiding place that can perfectly conceal weapons and still be easily accessible when you need them.

Hidden gun cabinet in the wall

Find a place on one of your house’s walls where you can fit a full body mirror. Well, this is our example, you can use anything else you like (a big painting for example). These items (the mirror or the painting) are used to conceal the fact that behind it there is a hidden cabinet. If you’re careful with the work or if you hire a professional, no one in the house will be able to tell.

Finding the place may be the most difficult part because it needs to look natural. Also you have to make sure that you don’t have any plumbing or wiring behind the cabinet. You wouldn’t want to break something while you try to hide your guns.

After you’ve find the perfect spot and you have all the necessary tools, start by cutting a hole in the wall. It needs to be smaller than the object you’re using to cover everything up (in our case, the mirror). This object is going to actually be on your cabinet’s door so if the hole is bigger anyone will know something is up. Cut the hole but make sure to leave the insulation alone, you don’t need this cabinet to be extremely deep, 5 inches should be enough.

Now you have a big hole in your wall so it’s time to build something to fill that hole with. Take the measuring tape and measure the length and width of the hole. After you got the exact measurements, start building a box that will fit exactly in the hole. You will need to build the box’s frame and install a back side. For the backside you can use plastic, plywood, or paneling. This box is going to be the inside of your guns cabinet so after everything is done slide it in the hole and screw it in place. You can add hooks inside the cabinet in order to hang your guns and secure them in place.

The next logical step is to install the door. This is a big piece of wood on which you install the mirror (or the painting) on one side and cabinet hinges on the other side. Mount it on the frame of the box inside and make sure nothing looks out of place. The door should be in perfect harmony with the mirror and you can even decorate it to look like a frame.

The final step is to install a lock. You can go with a traditional lock with a key or you can install a keypad activated lock that you can hide somewhere else in the house (following the same process).

The bookcase storage place

People have used bookcases to hide secretes for centuries! Regardless that it’s a hidden door, a trap to another world or simply a place to stash away your gun, the bookcase is still the best. This is a really fun DIY project that won’t take more than one afternoon. Also you won’t have to cut up any walls or doors for this.

You will need the following items:

A wooden box

Old books or decorative book spines

Glue

We think you’ve got the main idea but for better information on the matter, please read the making process. The wooden box needs to be carefully chosen or built. Here are the characteristics it needs to have:

It needs to be as tall as the book spines or smaller. In no case the box can be taller than the book spines!

Make sure that your gun or guns will easily fit in the wooden box. If people can see something sticking out of it you’ll lose the element of surprise.

Make sure the box fits in the bookcase perfectly and nothing looks weird.

If you decide to use old books instead of decorative spines you need to make sure you use books equal in length. Also, when you remove the spines, make sure they are of the same width.

The making process is simple. You simply take the box and decide on which side the spines should go. First make sure it fits perfectly in your bookcase shelf (the very top one) and that you can camouflage it with other books.

Glue the spines on one side of the box, making sure they look as natural as possible, and let it dry. When everything is done, put the guns in the box and place the box on the shelf. No one will know that your bookcase hides more than knowledge.

Inside the couch

I told you need to be creative, right? How do you feel about actually sitting on your guns? All you need to do is flip the couch over and remove the cloth that covers the frame. You’ll discover that you have a lot of space under there. Well, this is true for older couches, I’m not sure it still works for modern ones but it doesn’t hurt to look.

You can use a system of hooks and belt fasteners to keep the guns in place and when everything is fixed, you should cover the entire system with the couch’s cloths again. This is not a good system for your go-to guns as it is going to be difficult to get them in case of a robbery but you can use it to hide any rifles you have around the house. The place is safe and difficult to detect.

False bottom drawer

It looks like a complicated job but with a bit of patience and skills you can do it. Of course you can always have it made by a professional but where’s the fun in that?

In order to make a hidden compartment in your night stand, you will need the following items:

saw to cut up the wood planks;

planks of wood (you can use plywood or paneling)

a pen

a measuring tape

glue

The process goes like this: first of all take the drawer out of its place and measure it. Then measure your gun and make sure it will fit. Also measure its height to know how big your compartment needs to be. Just make sure that after you install the false bottom there’s still some place left in the drawer so it doesn’t look weird.

Now that all the measuring is done, cut 4 small pieces of wood and make sure their height is a little bigger than of your gun’s. These are going to be placed in every corner of your drawer and they’ll support the false bottom. After this, cut up the false bottom out of a plank of wood. Make sure it’s thick enough to support anything you are going to put on top of it. Also, make sure that it fits naturally in your drawer.

After everything is measured and sliced you can start installing your hidden compartment. First of all, glue the pieces you made for support in every corner and wait for it to dry. When this is done, drill a small hole in the real bottom of your drawer. This is going to be your opening system. You can put an ink cartridge from a pen or a thin metal rod through it and push the false bottom to open it.

Next step is to place the gun in the drawer and install the false bottom on top. After this, test the opening system and if everything is good to go, place the drawer back in your night stand. You may want to actually put something in the drawer otherwise it will look weird – who keeps an empty drawer in their night stand?

You might understand the making process better from a video tutorial which is why you can see it here how to make a false bottom drawer.

Of course, the compartment you’ll build depends on the type of guns you have. So it’s recommended to first buy the weapon and then build the compartment. If you’re on the search phase (for the weapon), take a look at our article where we review the best survival guns – it may be useful.

Concealed gun storage you can buy

As I said before, if you’re not the handyman kind of person then you can simply buy these spaces from tactical stores or online. In the following we’re going to shortly discuss a few of the options you have on the market.

The shelf on the wall

It’s a very simple shelf (as you can see on the link below) with a big secret hidden underneath. You can choose the color and the wood it’s made of so it fits the rest of the furniture.

This type of hidden gun cabinet is capable to store up to two guns and you can customize the rest of the foam to fit anything else (a scope or a knife for example). The locking system is magnetic and you can use either a safety lock or a lock with a magnetic key. The hinges are controlled using a dampener gas spring and this means your guns won’t fall on the floor once the cabinet is opened.

Tall concealment clock

It’s both a wonderful piece of furniture that will definitely decorate your house and a hidden gun cabinet. It’s the perfect place to hide your gun away from your children and still have quick access to it in case of an attack. It locks with a magnet and it can’t be opened unless you know which side to press.

The fact that you can put it on shelf wherever in the house makes it a better place for concealing a weapon than the safe. The safe needs to be opened and, in case of an attack, each second is extremely precious.

Faux book safe set

We’re back at the bookcase but this time with something that actually looks like a book. It’s like you’re in one of the James Bond movies, with a gun concealed in a book. These books look genuine but they are actually secret compartments where you can store valuable papers, money and small guns. You simply put it in the bookcase, between all you other books and no one will know.

As you can see, there are many ways to keep your guns safe and away from prying eyes and children. You just need to put your imagination to work and make sure you have access to the hidden compartment any time you want.

About the Author

David Dawson

David Dawson is a retired security specialist with over 20 years of experience. He worked for a secret manufacturing facilities and hospitals in Illinois. David's responsibility was to protect people in case of any disaster or cataclysm that might occur. Now he keeps on doing it through teaching others about how to prepare and survive flood, earthquake or even war.

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